1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to I/O cards and cable harness units for use therewith, particularly to the I/O card having a pro-assembled cable harness therein for being ready to connect a notebook computer and the corresponding periphery together.
2. The Prior Art
I/O cards are commonly used in the computer industry gradually. Different from the conventional IC memory card as shown in U.S. Pats. No. 5,061,845, 5,313,364 and 5,373,149 which has only one connection port, the typical I/O card as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,207,586, 5,242,310 and 5,244,397, has two connection ports at its two opposite ends wherein one is a connector as used in the aforementioned conventional IC memory card for engagement with a complementary connector installed in the computer case, and the other is an I/O connector adapted to be engaged with a cable harness unit which may directly extend from or is attached to a specific periphery such as a modem or a multi-media device. Through its internal circuits, the I/O card can function as an interface between such a peripheral and the notebook computer for achieving the specific performance.
As well known, the end user himself often needs to set up the whole function system after he buys a basic computer set and in a later time he further wants to perform some additional functions by connecting the corresponding peripheral or outside environment thereto. In this situation, the user can buy such a outside environment, and a corresponding I/O card which is substantially an interface between the outside environment and the computer set. Moreover, if the outside environment of a type has no associated connection cable projecting therefrom for directly coupling to the corresponding I/O card, it is necessary for the user to buy additional cable harness for connecting the I/O card to the outside environment. As shown in FIG. 1 which is substantially a main figure of U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,360, an I/O connector 10 embedded within a I/O card 12, is adapted to be designedly engaged with a complementary connector 14 of a cable harness 16 which is connected to an outside environment. As experienced, because of the tiny dimensions of the I/O connector 10 of the I/O card 12 and of the complementary connector 14 of the cable harness 16, the manufacturing cost thereof is relatively high and substantially of a high percentage of the cost of the whole I/O card set or the cable harness set.
From a viewpoint of manufacturing, to lower the cost of this assembly, i.e., the I/O card and the corresponding cable harness, it may eliminate the costly I/O connector in the I/O card and its complementary connector of the cable harness. Unfortunately, because the manufacturers of the outside environment and of the I/O card are different and separate, till now there is no such a subject discussed or efforts taken to efficiently achieve the goal of cost-down.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide an I/O card associated with a cable harness which substantially extends integral with the I/O card. In comparison with the conventional coupling of the I/O card and the corresponding cable harness, the invention eliminates an I/O connector originally positioned in the I/O card and a complementary connector of the cable harness, thus significantly reducing the cost thereof for economic consideration.
Additionally, from a viewpoint of engineering, in the conventional engagement between the I/O card and the complementary cable harness includes two corresponding connectors (10, 14) which results in increasing of contact resistance and may induce improper intermittence thereof. Therefore, another object of the invention is to provide an I/O card with an associated cable harness assembly having an expected better technical performance and reliability.
Moreover, from a viewpoint of application of the end user, it is unnecessary to buy a scanner or modem and a separate independent I/O card such as a scanner card or a modem card which only designedly couples to the specific device (scanner or modem) in the real operative application. There is also no need for the user to connect or disconnect such two components (i.e., the I/O card and the outside environment device) repeatedly under the condition that such a I/O card is substantially only designed to cooperate with such a specific device in operation. Thus, another object of the invention is to provide an I/O card and cable harness assembly without requirements or possibility of the connection/disconnection issue therebetween for easy operation, and the specific I/O card and associated cable harness even is substantially of a part of the specific corresponding device in selling or transporting to simplify, for the end user, the installation of the corresponding periphery regard to the computer set for desired functions.